Brand First, Design Second

Sun Lei
First published in Modern Weekly, Brand Thinking Column (December 23rd, 2005)

The author is an experienced brand consultant, who has many years experience in brand planning, marketing strategies and integration of communication planning and implementation. Once worked as senior manager in multi-national and local companies in marketing consulting and integrating communications fields, experienced in strategic planning. He formerly worked for CNC and was responsible for brand management. Providing brand strategies, communication strategies and

implementation and training service for many international and local clients. The brands include: FAW-Volkswagen, Jetta Cars, 263 Internet Communications, Dangdang Website, Aucma Airconditioner, FAW Toyota, Tour in Sichuan, CNC, LG, Beijing Yanli Food, and more.

He constantly ponders and develops professional settlement methods in marketing, branding and communication fields, etc. Lots of articles have been published in professional media such as International Advertising, AD PANORAMA, Advertising Pointer, China Marketing Communication Website (EMKT) and so on. You are welcome to discuss your ideas and express your opinions with the author. Tel: 13901385424 E-mail: lei.sun@revobranding.com

What are the secrets behind the industrial designs of famous brands? What is the relationship between their brand shaping and their products industrial designs? If the questions above can be answered, creation efficiency will be greatly enhanced and creation will become more effective. Which is more important, product industrial design or the brand of products? Some believe famous brands lead to solid success, while others believe outstanding products are more important than famous brands. Enterprises actually must realize this: brands, as a presupposition, should be fully considered in the creative process of product development and industrial design. Lets look at it and talk about this topic.

Brand Power Exceeding Product Power If a companys products industrial design are outstanding, whether it is a famous brand or not, consumers would buy them. Is this point of view correct? Lets have a look at the following actual example: Flat Panel Displays (FPDs) of various brands and models are exhibited on the 2nd floor of an electronic appliance store. Brands like PRIMA, LG and other famous brands all have their own inquirers and purchasers. However, when consumers see Chaojing FPDs, their dialogue becomes different. Oh, what brand is this? Ive never heard of it. I think it is Chinese made. If we buy it, do you think the after-sales service is dependable? After-sales service aside, is the quality reliable? I think wed better look at other brands. The dialogue above has given us a clear answer: at least for expensive and longterm use products, no matter how good the product is consumers who have no recognition or familiarity with the brand will not buy them. The second misconception is: if the products industrial design is outstanding, consumers will buy them no matter what the products brand image is. Lets have a look at another example: a white-collar lady wants to buy a new model of SIM card digital camera (DC). After she reaches the store in Zhongguancun, The salesman recommended two products, CASIO Exilim EX-S500 and Nikon Coolpix S2, both of which were within her budget. For her the CASIO might be more suitable. Because it has multiple models, many color choices, non-telescopic camera lens with professional designs and practical unique anti-shake function.

Pic 1: CASIO Nikon Coolpix S2 Pic 2: Exilim EX-S500

Although CASIO has the advantages above, she bought the Nikon Coolpix S2 instead. Why did this happen? Lets make a hypothesis: if we exchanged the name and logo of the two products, perhaps she would buy CASIO without hesitation. What factors influenced her purchase decision? CASIO is not a professional digital camera brand with a leading status in the field. The advertising mascot of CASIO is Astro Boy, which makes her feel CASIO consumers tend to be younger. Therefore she thinks CASIO does not
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conform to her white-collar image. Compared with CASIO, Nikon is considered to be a professional imaging brand. Although she may actually like the CASIO model, whose technology parameters are very similar to Nikon, Nikon, as a famous brand, is reliable in professional quality and guarantee. Products of ordinary brands, even with outstanding industrial designs, will not win all the consumers. With equal splendid industrial designs, consumers tend to choose the more approved brand in their mind; if the Benz Logo were taken off and replaced by the Geely Logo, how much would this Geely S600 cost? There are many digital music players of various outstanding designs in the global market, but only iPod sold 8.26 million, which counts up to 2/3 of the global market share.

Pic 3: CASIO Exilim EX-S500

These examples clearly tell us: Both good industrial designs and famous brands are important. Outstanding Designs Supporting Brands When you hear the name Celine Dion, maybe you will immediately think of her
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songs, the classic tune and her appearance. What if when Rejoice or BMW is mentioned? What do you think of? Have you ever seen it? Have you once used it? Have you ever heard about it? Do you like it? The impressions produced in your mind are brands. Industrial designs are committed to producing creation in order to meet consumers needs, and brands come into being after consumers try out the products. Where do brands come from? They are rooted from consumers experience with the products. If consumers could not obtain a unique driving pleasure when test-driving a BMW, how else could BMW attract consumer? If SONY could not develop constantly creative and leading electronic appliances, would consumers continue to be interested in their brand? Consumers would gradually lose passion to these brands, because their needs would soon be met by other brands. Therefore, good brands constantly strive to develop outstanding products, splendid industrial designs and creative consumers experience. Motorolas V3 is a typical example of good industrial design. When a fashionable young man puts a shiny V3 on the table; when a young lady carrying a Louis Vuitton bag is holding a black, light and thin V3, it has been established that the V3 has become the symbol of fashion and taste. Its sales have doubled that of what Motorola has predicted. Actually, V3 has become the symbol of fashion and because of this MOTO has emphasized its fashionable, sexy and technical attributes. NOKIA, another cell phone leader, expresses its top industrial designs by its userfriendly menu, bold keyboard layout and fashionable product appearance. It was NOKIA 8110 that first developed the now classic downward slide phone. The creative metal casing of NOKIA 8800 have also impressed most people. All the NOKIA products are actually emphasizing to consumers the belief that science is based on humans. In other words, the foundation of NOKIA brand status originates from outstanding products and splendid industrial designs.

Pic 4: NOKIA8800

Pic 5MOTOROLA V3

Design Definition Focusing on Core Values With the understanding of the relationship between industrial designs and brands, it is necessary for designers to consider present brand status and add the present brand analysis to the producing framework. Why? This can be explained through comparisons. Take Celine Dion as an example, if she were a singer who had outstanding strength and beautiful songs but no fame, how many of her CDs would sell? If she completely ignored current consumers expectations of her music and developed a Hip Hop album, would fans be willing to buy her CDs? Before developing product definitions, industrial designers must find the exact answers to the following questions: Do we possess a brand? Who knows our brands? What about their brand perceptions? What about their brand experience? What about their satisfaction? What are their expectations on brands? What do they think of competitors brands? If you were a VOLVO designer who likes sports cars and thirsts for designing a completely new sports car, what advantages should be involved in your dream car? Is it best handling, the most beautiful appearance or the fastest speed? If consumers perceptions, attitudes and expectations on VOLVO were unknown before product development began, it would be difficult to clearly answer the questions above. From the perspective of consumers, lets see whether this sports car will be successful. Due to VOLVOs many years of constant endeavors in product design and brand publicity, safety has become a synonym of the VOLVO brand. This has been the
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core motive for consumers to buy a VOLVO. The meaning of safety for consumers has exceeded its handling, appearance and speed aspects. Therefore, if industrial designers excessively emphasize appearance, function or handling in the definition of creation, it would be unpredictable whether the VOLVO C.E.O would agree with the design or not. It is easier for VOLVO to develop saloon cars and travel cars but not sports cars. If a sports car had to be designed, what should its direction be? The answer would be the safest sports car. Of course, handling, appearance and acceleration must also be excellent as to conform to its high-level car brand status. This direction would strengthen VOLVOs core value and will attract consumers who recognize the brand for this. Insisting on the Persistent Design Principles After fully understanding brand perception and finishing other preparations, formal designing may begin. At this point, not only product, structure, effect, function, and culture should be considered, brand persistent style should be emphasized in design so that consumers can easily recognize it. Benzs words may be clearest and easiest to understand: Benz cars must always look like Benz cars! Since Benz S class has developed many generations of products, if they were arranged side by side in chronological order, it would be obvious that the change of appearance in its models is actually a very gradual one. Therefore, the last generation will not immediately seem out-of-date when the following generation is developed. Meanwhile, all the models are the further development of the former generation as to maintain continuity.

Pic 6: Benz

If different Benz models of the same generation such as C class, E Class and S Class are compared side by side, we would discover there are certain internal and external similarities so that consumers can recognize them as Benzs. Likewise, if Benz, BMW and Audis logos were all removed, they could still easily be distinguished by appearance and internal decoration. In the auto field, different car companies have formed clear brand styles which will be affirmed through continuous creation. When Benz
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cooperates with its external designers, it will insist on the persistent design principle, which is continuing its own tradition in materials, surface craftwork and color so as to ensure the continuity in appearance. Thus it can be seen that brand style needs continuity and focus on directly perceptive steps, parts and fields. For example, if iPod develops a brand-new product, it can be predicted that it will inherit the following features: smooth body, high-quality material and familiar interface utilization. What consumers can see and touch would make them immediately recognize it as a product belonging to the iPod family. Therefore, memories in consumers mind such as quality, practicality, fashion, creativity and attitudes are aroused. Thereafter, when consumers have experienced the specialties and advantages of the new product, they will still be very satisfied. The related perception and attitudes are thus emphasized, so iPod achieves its high brand loyalty. Brands should be regarded as having a kind of material existence, which exists in the consumers minds. Not only functionality and style should be considered in outstanding industrial designs, but consumers brand perception and brand styling must also be considered as a premise for brand perception. Brand first, Design second must be rooted deeply in the minds of these companies. Chinese enterprises are confronting many problems in management, most of which are originate from no consensus on basic definitions. If we can correctly understand the relations between brands and industrial designs, creative efficiency will be enhanced greatly. Intellectual Property Announcement You can copy, distribute, present and perform the article. The required conditions are as follows: You must save the authors or authorized persons name, photo, introduction and contact, etc., as what they have appointed. You mustnt alter transit or edit the article. Before reusing and spreading this article, you must explain the authorized items clearly to others. Please ask the copyrighters permission before refproducing, spreading and releasing the article. If you have gained the permission of the copyrighter, any of the conditions above can be released. The rights for reasonably using the article and other rights will not be influenced by the conditions above.